Delia reached for the page and caught it with her tiny fist, forcing him to gently extract it. “You can’t rip your books. Your uncle Keris thinks you can do no wrong and he’ll blame me. He’s already referred to me asan enemy of the written wordfor burning my library down.”
In typical infant fashion, his daughter cared nothing about the abuses her father suffered at her uncle’s hand and Delia shrieked in protest at being denied the book. Aren gave her a silver rattle, which she promptly hurled to the floor.
“I appreciate a girl who knows what she wants.”
Starting at Ahnna’s voice, Aren looked up to find his sister leaning against the doorframe, and a band of emotion tightened around his chest so fiercely that he could barely breathe. Ahnna was covered in bruises and scrapes, her right arm in a splint, and her body so thin she looked like a wraith, but she was here.
His sister was alive.
“Fatherhood looks good on you, brother,” she remarked. “Youappear ready to settle down into middle age and get soft while the younger generation runs about having adventures.”
“I literallyjustcame from the battlefield. And I’d like to remind you that you and I are the exact same age.”
“I know.” Ahnna grinned. “But I’m not the one sitting on a sofa with a drink explaining to a baby the risks of associating with a camel named Jack.”
“If you’d met Jack, you’d understand.”
His twin laughed, then came into the room and walked the length of the shelves. “Where did you get the new library?”
“Where do you think?”
She huffed. “Keris. He does understand that you can’t eat a book, yes?”
“I won’t pretend to understand what that man thinks.”
Ahnna trailed her finger down the spines, but then pulled out a volume and flipped through the pages. “On the merits of using bronze rather than copper for small coinage.Sounds fascinating.”
“Keris has eclectic tastes.”
“Katarina told us Keris is in Verwyrd. Other than being manipulated by Alexandra, what’s his reason for risking Lestara’s wrath?”
“Officially, to be an intermediary between Harendell and Ithicana. Unofficially, he’s my spy, although you’re correct that he’s not going to be pleased to learn that Alexandra outwitted him.”
“Alexandra makes the Magpie look like a bumbling idiot, and compared with Petra, she’s alarmingly sane.” Ahnna was quiet for a long moment as she stared blindly at the pages of the book. “Yet I think her greatest attribute is that she’s profoundly patient. Thirty years, Aren. James’s whole life, she’s known the truth about Siobhan and the threat it posed to her and her children, but she bided her time until now.”
“I underestimated her,” he admitted. “Edward was the one person I was confident she would not cross, but here we are.”
“Here we are,” Ahnna repeated, then crossed the room to sit on the sofa next to him. “May I hold her?”
Delia scrunched up her face in protest as he lifted her off his chest and settled her in the crook of Ahnna’s arm, eyeing the splint. “Is that broken?”
“It’s more or less healed. Carlo broke it when he caught us to prove a point, and James insists I keep it splinted.” She handed Delia the book on coinage, his daughter instantly ripping out pages, cooing in delight at the noise. Ahnna lowered her lips to Delia’s ear and whispered, “I’ll burn the evidence later so that Keris never knows.”
“He’ll do inventory,” Aren muttered. “Keris is like a goddamned librarian. And he drinks all my best wine.” He sighed. “But he’s in the thick of it for our sake.”
“What about Zarrah?”
A flood of frustrated anger surged through him. “Entirely silent. She hasn’t responded to any of my letters, and the Valcottan merchants trading at Southwatch say that she’s been out of public view. Lots of chatter about conflict between her and Keris, but Valcotta is also said to have wasting disease in their herds. They’ve had to do significant culling, which has had the impact you might imagine.”
“None of this sounds like Zarrah.” Ahnna frowned. “What about Sarhina?”
“She’s rendered herself borderline powerless. I got into it with a few of Maridrina’s elected representatives, and they’ve made it clear their interest is the resumption of trade on the bridge, not Ithicana’s autonomy. They’ll throw us to the wolves for the sake of Harendellian beef. Sarhina has sway with them, but she won’t risk her people for personal interests.”
“Having endured Alexandra and Katarina, there is something to be said for a queen who puts her people first, even if it is not in our interests. Maridrina needed a ruler like Sarhina.” Ahnna adjusted Delia on her lap, watching her niece continue to shred pieces of paper. “We’ve got weather coming in. The next storm will be a big one.”
Thunder from the squall currently over Midwatch boomed, and Delia jerked in surprise and then began to cry. Aren reached for her, but Ahnna tucked the baby closer, cooing and calming Delia’s tears.
“I always forget how good you are with children.”
